Dive Brief:

• Event ticketing company SeatGeek has teamed up with buy now-pay later provider Affirm to offer “more ways to pay” for tickets to live concerts, Broadway shows and games, the companies announced Thursday.
• The tie-up means customers purchasing tickets for concerts, professional sporting events or other entertainment can choose Affirm at checkout to spread out their payments over time, with biweekly or monthly payment schedules.
• As pandemic-weary consumers return to live events, SeatGeek is “paying closer attention to their feedback so we can evolve with this ever-changing consumer base – especially the younger generations,” Paula Segal, the ticketing provider’s head of consumer product, said in a news release.

Dive Insight:

High inflation has tanked consumer confidence, meaning more people could be looking to break up their purchases. Especially when those purchases are discretionary, like for events or experiences, the ability to offer buy now-pay later may be an attractive way to bolster sales. 

Segal suggested SeatGeek was incorporating fans’ feedback by striking a partnership with San Francisco-based Affirm. “The post-pandemic boom in online shopping brought a wave of innovations that resulted in a transformation of entire operations, and left customers wanting more control over their purchases,” she said, per the release.

The BNPL concept has taken off with consumers and merchants, fueling its expansion into areas beyond retail, like travel, healthcare, auto repair and legal expenses. Research firm Morning Consult recently noted the portion of U.S. adults who’ve used BNPL at least once in the past month remained steady at 16% this year.    

The Affirm-SeatGeek partnership makes it possible “for more people to enjoy the experiences they want by delivering flexible and transparent payment options at checkout,” said Affirm’s Chief Revenue Officer Geoff Kott, per the release.

As BNPL providers have sought to add more merchants to their rosters, Affirm has tried to establish its place among BNPL rivals, such as Block’s Afterpay and the Swedish company Klarna, by teaming up with retail juggernauts like Amazon, Target and Walmart. Affirm has about 200,000 merchants in its network and close to 13 million active users, per the release. In the events category, Affirm has also partnered with StubHub.

The Australian BNPL competitor Zip is available to Ticketmaster users, and Swedish company Klarna has linked with Vivid Seats to offer an installment payments option.